LETTER: Fracking big worry on federal trust land

Federal agencies regulate gas drilling on both federal lands and those held in trust for tribes. We don't hear a lot about fracking on federal Indian land, because much of it is west of the Mississippi. However, the New York State-Oneida Indian Nation settlement gives the Oneidas the right to take up to 25,000 acres of land into trust.

The revised federal draft fracking regulations:

1. Allow well operators to avoid disclosing use of dangerous chemicals.

2. Do nothing to prevent fracking wells right next to homes and schools

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3. Have no requirement to collect and disclose baseline data on air and water quality.

4. Allow the industry to store contaminated waste in massive open pits.

5. Do not allow Native Americans to opt out.

The leaders of the Oneida Nation apparently want gas drilling and the tribe purchased gas well leases through a company called Ardent Resources.

A dozen water wells were contaminated by Ardent in 2007 in Brookfield, Madison County. Currently Ardent has a NYS DEC permit pending in Brookfield for a horizontal gas well.

Why would Governor Cuomo want land removed from the sovereign jurisdiction of the state knowing it may open Central New York to fracking?